the_mysterious_mr_enterfandomcom-20200214-history
The Religion of Education
When I became an agnostic atheist, a close friend had a conversation with me. Their parents were cultivating them to be Christian. It went without saying. They asked me “Aren’t you worried about never going to heaven?” More recently, I had a conversation with another close friend Their parents were beckoning them to go to college. It went without saying. They asked me “Aren’t you worried about never amount to anything?” If you go to church every Sunday and pray often, you’ll get into heaven. And then you’ll be happy. If you go to school every day, you’ll get into college. And then you’ll be happy. The Promised Land of education just comes about earlier. I’m not a faithful man and I rarely believe in things that I do not see, hence the agnostic atheist. Now most people would find a divergence in my theory: we can’t see heaven, but we can see the results of college. You’re not off-base. We can’t see heaven. We can’t see hell either. Yet, we can see both the heaven and hell of education. I can cite facts and figures, people and statistics that show people who have never graduated college have become successful, and I can talk about the fact, according to the Huffington Post, that as of 2013, half of our country’s unemployed are college graduates. The knee-jerk defense is to scream exceptions, and that you or your child won’t be one of those exceptions on either side. I’m not here to argue college or its prospects. For now, anyway. I’m here to talk about the road to it. To some of the weaker willed, to say that college is not necessary is like telling a 19th century Protestant that God does not exist. I am here, however, to argue about the reality of the situation. College is a path of blind faith. Heaven is a path of blind faith. To any Christians or Catholics or others who believe in heaven who may be arguing here, I ask, how do you know that heaven exists? You can feel it to your core, but that’s not knowing, that’s faith. And there’s nothing wrong with faith, even blind faith, until it becomes delusion. There’s nothing wrong with believing in heaven and trying to get there, with the normal stipulations of not hurting people. I restate the fact that college is a path of blind faith. Why else would you take out a six-figure loan to attempt to get a job five years in the future for a career that may not exist, and if it does, may not need you. Even in STEM concepts, you’re learning the science, tech, engineering, and math of the past. By the time you start learning them, they may be obsolete. You could make a million-dollar salary upon graduation and get everything you ever want if you go to college. You could get to heaven if you go to church every Sunday. And yes, I am grossly simplifying the aspects of these religions. There’s more to it. What were those commandments again? 1. Thou shalt have no higher ambition than getting to college 2. Thou shalt never get a grade lower than a B 3. Thou shalt not consider a blue-collar career 4. Thou shalt not dismay about college 5. Thou shalt attend school every day 6. Thou shalt not seek the arts or humanities 7. Thou shalt not drop out 8. Thou shalt study for every test 9. Thou shalt accept none but Ivy League 10. Thou shalt not complain about it Many children of the American youth find themselves as hindered to these commandments. When a Catholic parent throws his atheist son out of the house it’s frowned upon. When a Education parent throws out his son when he decides he doesn’t want to go college it’s not. The Education parent’s son is obviously a freeloader, right? Not necessarily. Maybe he just didn’t have high enough ambitions and wanted to go through with his passion of being an auto mechanic. I mean it’s possible. And it’s also possible for that atheist son to be murderer. Don’t make assumptions. I said that the parent kicked out the son was kicked out because he decided not to go to college. This was a hypothetical scenario. What’s not? The 2009 documentary film Race to Nowhere. It was made by a former parent who pushed the Educational ideals onto her daughter to the point of getting her physically sick. Many other children and teens are pushed into depression. In the worse cases, kids stake their self-worth on their grades. In the worst: parental love. The horrifying part is that the “worse cases” is often seen implicitly, or even explicitly, as a good thing. Kids have been so pressured by school in the United States that they’re not worth more than their grades. I’ve seen this with my own eyes. Belief is important. Even as an agnostic atheist, I believe that you need to believe in something. You can believe in heaven all you want, but if you beat your children to get them there, I don’t believe that you’ll be joining them. And yes, I know what the Bible says, but I also know what the laws and society says. I believe that if you beat your child or their psyche to get them through childhood and to a better life, I believe that you won’t be a part of it. It’s not a threat. It’s a warning. It’s like a threat, but not. You could even call it a “friendly threat.” Understand your motives. Why do you want your child to go to college? Because it’ll make you proud? This is the reason that pride is one of the seven deadly sins. Take it from me, for all my advice is worth (I didn’t get it from college), never stake your pride in the achievements or another. You can be happy for their achievements, but happiness is not pride. Pride is how much you care about what others think about you, and if you stake it on someone you can’t control entirely, you’ll always be disappointed. Why do you want your child to go to college? Because you want a better future or success for them? Define better future. Define success. There’s a slight chance that their opinion is different than your opinion. George W. Bush is a college graduate and was the President of the United States, and is the man response for why your child is having more problems in school than they should. Would anyone still call him successful? And if the former President of the United States can be considered unsuccessful, perhaps we should reevaluate our perspective on the matter. There’s a saying that you’ve probably heard about: money does not buy happiness. Doctors make the most money, statistically, than any other career in America. On top of that they save lives. They also lose lives, come across issues that they may or may not be able to solve, constantly are at the risk of lawsuits, work on call, and have to worry about the health problems of themselves and their families. Not to mention the 8 years of school and the sacrificed childhood to get that far. Does that sound happy to you? And if you are willing to undergo this because the good parts bring you happiness and satisfaction, from the bottom of my heart, I respect you. But I wouldn’t wish this job on my worst enemy if they didn’t want to do it. With my luck, they’d end up being my doctor. This isn’t fantasy. This is reality. You’ve done the same thing, by pointing out the pitiful working conditions that the game designer gets, the tough luck that the actor gets, the pay of the mechanic. No job is perfect. College-jobs are just a different kind of not perfect. But don’t you dare tell me that taking that pathway is less stressful. I’m not saying that you’re wrong that you should help your child to get to college though. But before I continue, I do want to point something out. There’s a difference between telling a child to go to college and helping them get there. Punishing them for bad grades is not how you help them to get to college, and the guidance counselors are there for scholarships and applications and standardized tests. So, how do you get your child in and through college? Once again, reevaluate your perspective. Catholics have it easy. Their Promised Land, heaven, is the end point. College is not the end-point. College is one stop on the road map of life, but it’s not an end point. There is no such thing as professional student, so stop training your child for being one. Figure out what your child wants to do beyond college and cultivate that interest. What if the route doesn’t go through college? What if they want to become, I don’t know, a garbage man? Well, unlike the doctors, who we don’t really have any job openings for (and also, other country’s doctors who can’t get jobs, are coming over to America), we will always need garbage men, specifically because it’s a job that we’ll always need and no one wants to do because it’s not prestigious. For every prestigious lawyer we get, we’re going to need about four or five plumbers. There’s nothing wrong with having your child being a blue-collared worker if that’s what will make them happy. What about the artist who is following their passion? I’m sure that you’ve heard of the concept of the “Backup plan,” right? I hope so, you guys are the ones who came up with it. I totally understand this. But, when you focus more on the backup plan than the actual plan it tell me that you want the plan to fail. What parent wants their child to fail? What am I asking? Help your child find auditions along with scholarships and applications. Your child is worth more than their grades. When they stake their self-worth on their grades and they’re not able to pass, their self-worth is the first thing that gets hurt. Then they’re hit with your beratings when they get home. Some attack outwards and some attack inwards. I understand, you want the best future for your child, but going down this road risks their future in general. The depressed teen is one of the very few stereotypes with merit. Standardized testing is making kids wet themselves and vomit in class. www.washingtontimes.com/news/2… Yelling at them for every failed grade does not help this problem. I can tell you affirmatively, that the landscape of primary education now is harder and worse than when you attended. It’s worse than when I attended, and that was five years ago Most of all, stop treating college like it’s the Promised Land. It’s ridiculous that I can compare college to heaven. I barely needed to think about this metaphor. It’s even more ridiculous that I can do it with merit. Even beyond “do this action and you will achieve this uncertain result.” Stop treating your kids like they’re going to hell if they stray from the path of college. It’s fine to be religious. It’s fine to have faith. It’s fine to hope your child shares your own religion. It’s fine to hope your child shares your desire for college. But just like I cannot respect disowning your son for declaring his atheism, I cannot respect disowning your son for declaring his path away from college. You cannot force anyone to believe something. If that was true, the entire world would only have one religion. People will believe what makes sense to them. Category:Miscellaneous